Phulbari,
Bangladesh - May 5th,
2011 - On the afternoon of May 5th,
a peaceful anti-coal demonstration by local villagers in Bangladesh
suddenly turned bloody. The resort to violence is the latest in a
series of events that have made the proposed Phulbari
Coal Project,
along with nearby mining in Barapukuria, one of the most fiercely
contested coal projects in the world. The United States Ambassador
has also been implicated in a recent WikiLeaks cable, which shows the
Obama administration exerting covert political pressure to push the
project forward despite a six-year fight to halt it and recurring
violence against people protesting the mine.

"At
about 3pm today, as people gathered in Barapukuria, some hooligans
backed by the minister attacked the peaceful demonstration, including
women and children," reported Professor Anu Muhammad of
Jahangirnagar University, who serves as Secretary of the nation-wide
people's organization that is leading the movement against the
Phulbari Coal Project, the National Committee for the Protection of
Oil, Gas & Minerals (http://www.protectresourcesbd.org).

"Many
were injured, including one National Committee leader, SMA Khaleque,
who is now in the hospital in serious condition. Both his hands are
broken by the criminals. But people continue to speak out and the
protests are continuing," added Muhammad. Protestors have vowed to
remain in place and continue a blockade of key road and railway lines
in the region until 10 a.m. on May 6th.

The
proposed Phulbari Coal Project in northwest Bangladesh would destroy
14,500 acres of the nation's most fertile farmland to make way for
an immense open-pit coalmine. The project would extract 572 million
tons of coal over a lifespan of at least 36 years, and construct at
least one 500 MW coal-fired power plant that would emit greenhouse
gases for decades to come. In addition, a 2008 Expert Committee
Report commissioned by the Bangladeshi government found that nearly
130,000 (129,417) people would be forcibly evicted and displaced from
their homes and lands, most of whom are indigenous and farming
families with multi-generational ties to the land.

The
project is currently stalled and awaiting government approval, which
has been delayed while the government considers a national ban on
open-bit coal mining. The government is expected to release a new
national energy policy, including a decision on open-pit mining, by
June of this year. The grassroots movement formed in opposition to
the Phulbari Coal project has become increasingly linked to
community-led campaigns in the nearby Barapukuria region, where a
national "pilot project" to open-pit mining in Bangladesh is
being proposed.

The
May 5th protest follows a wave of recent mobilizations in Bangladesh,
including a seven-day "Long
March that began on October 24th,
2010, when tens of thousands of Bangladeshi citizens united to march
250 miles from the capital city of Dhaka to the Phulbari region in
northwest Bangladesh.

This
week's violence is not the first time that efforts to push forward
the coal mine have resulted in bloodshed: In August of 2006,
paramilitary forces opened fire on thousands of peaceful
demonstrators opposing the mine, killing three people, including a
14-year-old boy, and injuring more then 200.

During
the most recent protests, Bangladesh's notorious Rapid Action
Battalion (RAB) has been deployed to intimidate protesters and guard
the office of the project's UK-based investor, Global Coal
Management. Denounced
by international human rights organizations as a government death
squad, RAB is feared for it routine use of torture and the alarming
number of extra-judicial killings that occur in RAB custody.

WikiLeaks
cables released in December 2010 exposed that the
US Ambassador to Bangladesh, James Moriarty, has been actively
engaged in promoting the Phulbari Coal Project. In the cable, sent in
July of 2009, Moriarty
notes that the mine is "politically sensitive in the light of
the impoverished, historically oppressed tribal community residing on
the land." Nonetheless, Moriarty
urged the Prime Minister's energy advisor to authorize the project,
saying that "open-pit mining seemed the best way forward" and
citing 60% US investment in the company behind the project, Global
Goal Management (formerly known as Asia Energy).

Global
Coal Management Resources plc (GCM), a UK-based company, and their
wholly owned subsidiary Asia Energy Corporation (Bangladesh) Pty
Limited, control the Phulbari Coal Project, their sole asset. Over
53% of all GCM shares are owned by four companies that make up the
Luxor Capital Group, all of which are owned by Christian Leone, a US
citizen who also operates a New-York-based hedge fund in his own
name.

Commenting
on Moriarty's interference, Professor Anu Muhammad said "We have
seen for decades that the US Embassy works as lobby staff for
corporations-and not for the people."

"How
can the mining company, Global Coal Management-and the US
government-continue to ignore this opposition?" questioned Joanna
Levitt, Executive Director of the San Francisco-based human rights
group International
Accountability Project (IAP) which has been following the case since 2008. "The outcry in
Phulbari has grown into possibly the largest anti-coal movement in
the world, and yet the Obama administration continues to aggressively
push forward this project, without any regard for democratic process
in Bangladesh," Levitt added.

"If
a mine like Phulbari goes ahead," said Professor Mohammad from his
home in Phulbari, "it is not just our local people here who lose
when our homes and lands are destroyed. All people lose, US people
too, because environment is a global issue."

IAP
Senior Research Fellow Kate Hoshour commented, "Let's not forget
the global warming impacts. The Phulbari project would dramatically
expand coal-based energy production, the worst offender in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions and dirty energy, and it is being proposed
for a country that is among the most vulnerable in the world to the
impacts of climate change."